The Commanders reached out to Jim Caldwell about their offensive coordinator position, but the former Colts and Lions head coach told the team he was only looking for HC opportunities. This year’s coaching cycle has prompted the former AFC champion HC to close that path.
A fixture on coaching carousels since his Lions firing, Caldwell took a job on Frank Reich‘s Panthers staff. The two former Colts HCs reunited on a staff that includes Ejiro Evero, Dom Capers, Josh McCown and Thomas Brown. Caldwell, 68, is with Carolina as a senior offensive assistant; this marks his first NFL gig since a Dolphins quarterbacks coach role in 2019. He might be sticking around in Charlotte for a bit.
“Right now, the only job that I’m concerned about is the job I do here, right here and now,” Caldwell said, via ESPN.com’s David Newton. “I’m not worried about the future or anything else. I don’t plan on being a head coach from this point forward.
“When I didn’t get a head-coaching job, I immediately sort of changed the plan in terms of what I was looking for next. I knew I was at the stage where I wanted to be back in the building somewhere. And so, I did have some opportunities to kind of look at, and I was happy when Frank called.”
Then-Lions GM Bob Quinn fired Caldwell after he went 9-7 in 2018. The team has not bettered that record since. Caldwell then interviewed for nine HC jobs over the next four-plus years. The two-time HC met with the Packers, Browns, Jets, Cardinals, Texans, Jaguars, Bears, Broncos and Panthers from December 2018 until January of this year. The Denver and Carolina meetings occurred this year, and while Caldwell was not a finalist for the Panthers position, Reich sought him out for a role alongside he and Brown.
Caldwell is 62-50 as a head coach. His Colts record in games with Peyton Manning (24-8, two of the losses coming after the QB was pulled for rest purposes) and without (2-14) is notable, and Indianapolis’ two-win 2011 led to his ouster. Caldwell, however, accounted himself well in Detroit, guiding the Lions to two playoff berths and three winning seasons in four years. Caldwell is the only head coach over the past 50 years to leave the franchise with a winning record. He also took over as Ravens offensive coordinator late in the 2012 season, one that produced the signature stretch of Joe Flacco‘s career and ended with the team celebrating its second Super Bowl title.
The Panthers staff has a combined 191 years’ worth of NFL coaching experience, Newton notes, and it holds 10 Super Bowl rings in total. An assistant under Tony Dungy before taking the Colts HC job in 2009, Caldwell has two of those.
